Sfenj

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gstrong white flour
• 100 gfine semolina
• 10 ginstant dried yeast
• 1.5 tspfine salt
• 1 tspcaster sugar
• About 450 ml warm water

To fry and serve

• 1.5 litressunflower oil, for deep frying
• a bowl of water, for wetting your hands
• caster sugar or warm honey, to finish
• mint tea, to serve

Directions

1. Whisk the yeast and sugar into 100 ml of the warm water and leave 10 minutes until foaming.
2. Mix the flour, semolina and salt in a large bowl, pour in the yeast mixture and the rest of the water, and beat with your hand for 8 to 10 minutes, lifting and slapping the dough against the side of the bowl.
3. The dough should end up very wet, slack and elastic, closer to a thick batter than a bread dough; this high hydration is what gives sfenj their open, chewy interior.
4. Cover and prove in a warm place for 1 hr 30 min to 2 hours, until at least doubled and covered in bubbles that pop when you tap the bowl.
5. Knock back gently by folding the dough over itself twice in the bowl, then let it relax for 15 minutes.
6. Heat the oil in a deep pan to 175°C (350°F); a scrap of dough should rise and sizzle immediately without browning in under 20 seconds.
7. Wet your hands, pull off a fist-sized piece of dough, pierce the middle with a finger and swing it gently to open a wide hole, then lower it into the oil.
8. Fry three at a time for 2 to 3 minutes a side, turning once with a skewer, until deep golden brown and puffed, with a pale band around the middle.
9. Lift onto a rack to drain, dust heavily with caster sugar or dip in warm honey while hot, and eat within minutes; sfenj go leathery as they cool and are never kept.

Technique

• The dough is meant to be uncomfortably wet. Wet hands, not extra flour, are how you handle it, and a stiffer dough gives heavy, doughnut-like rings.
• Oil temperature is everything: too cool and they drink oil and go greasy, too hot and they colour before the centre cooks. Check the temperature between batches.
• Sfenj are fried to order at streetside stalls in the early morning and threaded onto a loop of palm frond or reed for the walk home, which is where the phrase sold by the string comes from.
• There is no sugar to speak of in the dough itself; the sweetness is added at the end, which is why plain sfenj are also eaten with cheese or jam.

Substitutions

• All strong white flour works if you have no semolina, giving a slightly softer, less chewy ring.
• Fresh yeast can replace the dried at 25 g, crumbled into the warm water.

Variations

• In Morocco the same fritter is sfenj too, and in Tunisia it is ftayer, often eaten with honey.
• A savoury version is torn open and stuffed with hmiss or a fried egg.
• Some sellers dip them in a sugar syrup scented with orange-flower water rather than dusting with sugar.

History

Fried in the morning at neighbourhood stalls and carried home threaded on a strip of palm frond or string.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sfenj?

Sfenj is a street food from Algeria: rough rings of yeasted dough deep-fried and sold hot by the string. Fried in the morning at neighbourhood stalls and carried home threaded on a strip of palm frond or string.

How long does Sfenj take to make?

Sfenj takes 20 min of preparation and 2 hr proving plus 20 min frying of cooking. The recipe makes about 12 rings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Sfenj?

Yes, within limits. All strong white flour works if you have no semolina, giving a slightly softer, less chewy ring. Fresh yeast can replace the dried at 25 g, crumbled into the warm water.

What is the most important thing to get right in Sfenj?

Lift onto a rack to drain, dust heavily with caster sugar or dip in warm honey while hot, and eat within minutes; sfenj go leathery as they cool and are never kept.